More from Brad Botkin on Blazer D: "Lillard heads a backcourt that is constantly beat at the point of attack, putting everyone else in scramble mode to help down on the penetration while still covering out shooters. It's a suicide mission. A couple passes, and offenses can get any shot they want against the Blazers, who are starting every possession in an 0-2 hole, thanks to Lillard and McCollum. That doesn't mean they should get all the blame. Jusuf Nurkic isn't a particularly good pick-and-roll defender, and Billups asking him to play at the level of screens isn't exactly putting him in position to succeed. Robert Covington is not a very good on-ball defender. Norman Powell tries and has long arms, but he's often undersized in his matchups as well. You can't blame Lillard for the 145 points Portland gave up to the Celtics on Saturday. He didn't play. "
there's a lot of bullshit in that article. The comparison to Curry is particular bullshit. Curry played with Klay, Iggy, Draymond, Livingston, Durant, Barnes. When the Blazers and Warriors played, Curry never guarded Dame, while Dame often guarded Curry. Curry didn't have to guard Dame because the Warriors had the luxury of hiding Curry while throwing all their length at Dame. Dame didn't have that luxury because Olshey joined him at the hip to 6'3 CJ and his t-rex arms not only that, Curry always had the luxury of Draymond to run the offense (as well as Iggy & Livingston). meanwhile, Dame had the dual burden of running the team offense and creating his own offense because the rest of the blazers couldn't create for him. Dame has had assisted FG rate around 25% while Curry's rates have been over 50%. Maybe if Dame had the all-star talent around him that curry has had he wouldn't have had to expend so much energy on offense and would have had a little more to spend on defense the situations of Curry and Dame have been really quite different on the defensive end and all the advantages were in Curry's corner I'm not excusing all of Dame's defensive flaws...he has them for sure. I just think Curry is a wildly misleading comp
There are plenty of posters here who can tell Morey that CJ is an all-star talent, he just needs the great coaching of Glenn Rivers...
If we aren’t rebuilding than go all in. CJ/Nas/1st/1 pick swap for Simmons Nurk/1st for Turner Dame/DSJ Powell/Ant RoCo/Nance Simmons/GB3 Turner/Zeller Would like to unload RoCo but I doubt his value is very high right now.
I'd give up Ant but would like to keep Nas. Not sold on Ant. Not a believer. Nas I like and think will continue to improve.
No to trading Nassir. Agreed that we'd need Ant once CJ is gone. I'd give up CJ, Roco and multiple picks plus swaps.
If you brought them a deal that was CJ, RoCo and two first rounders for Simmons, Reed and Joe I think they'd do it. Doc would think he could get more out of CJ and RoCo than we've been getting and you're just adding them to the team you're already playing with. I doubt they could get a better deal than that. Also the deals that Neil was pitching were bullshit... I read in multiple places that our FO was saying that Simmons for CJ was a one for one deal, well if Cronin has a brain in his head that has changed. Also I don't believe anything that Philly floats out to the media, it's a bargaining ploy. The fact that their floating CJs name even if it's to say they're not interested means they're still thinking about CJ. Despite the fact that we keep harping on the way RoCo is suffering in this new system he's still averaging 1 steal and 1 block a game and shooting the three at over 36%. CJ as much as we hate what he does to the flow of the offense is shooting the ball at 39% from three, getting 20 a game and actually getting a steal a game. The fact is that neither Seth or Maxey are better than CJ. They're both playing the best ball of their careers right now but they'll look different once teams start game planning for them and actually has lately. So they can get CJ and still have both Seth and Maxey. They can get another three and D guy that would be a big time contributor to them in RoCo. They'd never have to worry about the scoring droughts that have been their Achilles heal for a while now. The fact is they're hovering around .500 and they need more. We could give them that extra personnel that they need and some future draft considerations. They would give us their headache. That headache, Simmons would be so glad just to be out of that situation that he would come here wanting to prove the Sixers and all of the other doubters that they fucked up. It's a rare win win.
they have never sat next to each other for 9 seasons. cj always sits at the end of the bench, while dame is the first player next to the coaches.